LOVE—THE LIFE AND MOTIVE POWER OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
By Matthew Larson
WHEN we see the mighty steamers moving off so gracefully, cutting their way through the waters as though possessed of life, or the huge engine steaming along the track with such rapidity, we are naturally led to inquire for their motive power. What causes them thus to move? So with the Christian. What actuates and sustains him in his life of righteousness? What constitutes the motive power of his Christian endeavors? In the fall man lost his righteousness, his innocence. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5:12; 3:23. But Christ is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10), and through his blood we have redemption, "even the forgiveness of sins" (Col. 1:14). Says the beloved disciple: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. But to forgive his sins and merely restore him to his innocence, could never suffice to save him; for man not only lost his innocence, or holiness, but he also lost moral strength, or his power to live a pure and holy life. It is the logic of sin to not only defile, but to weaken and overthrow, one's power to resist sin, so that our best endeavors will become but miserable failures. Says the apostle:— "For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I . . . For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." Rom. 7:14-18. How many of us are there not who can testify by a sad personal experience to the truthfulness of this language? In looking over our past life, how many of us are not made to regret the consciousness of a life strewn with wrecks of promises and resolutions made but never kept? How often we have made mistakes; we have been overcome by Satan, and our good intentions, "our determinations to do better hereafter," have been shattered, until the consciousness of our weakness has caused us almost to lose faith, and in despair and remorse of conscience we have felt to exclaim, with the apostle Paul, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. 7:24. Thus, we need not only the forgiveness of our sins, but the power thereafter to render a life of obedience restored to us as well. And this power is supplied to us in Christ. Says Paul of his deliverance, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 7:25. "Without me ye can do nothing," said Christ. John 15:5. But, says an apostle, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Phil. 4:13. But what is this power with which he strengthens us? Paul says it is Christ,—the love of Christ. "For the love of Christ constraineth us." 2 Cor. 5:14. By the term294"the love of Christ" we do not understand the expression of his love in coming and suffering and dying for us to be meant, but the love itself—the principle of love, or the motive that actuated Christ and caused him to come and thus suffer and die for mankind. Christ was the very embodiment of love, and he is to be "formed" and "revealed" in us. Gal. 4:19; 1:16. We are to be "partakers of the divine nature." 2 Peter 1:4. And if Christ is in us, the "inner man," we will manifest it by living and walking "even as he walked." 1 John 2:6. Says another apostle:— "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him; rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. . . . For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." Col. 2:6-10. Here, then, is our motive power. Says the apostle, "The love of Christ constraineth us." It impels, or compels, us forward in the service of Christ; it is this that renders our faith active, and imparts life and force to it; without this element of love, our faith would be dead, would be worthless to us. "And if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." 1 Cor. 13:2, Revised Version. In fact, without love our belief would only afford us a source of dread; "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Heb. 10:27. "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well; the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" James 2:19, 20. And why "tremble"? why "dead"? —Simply because the love of God is not there—is not in such a faith. For— "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is love with us [margin] made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. . . . There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:16-18.